UAB knocks off UCF in Conference USA soccer tournament

HOOVER, Alabama - Chase Wickham netted a pair of first half goals to lead the sixth-seeded UAB men's soccer team past the No. 3 UCF Knights, 3-1, on Wednesday night in the opening round of the Conference USA Championship at Regions Park.

The win for UAB marked its second against the Knights over the last two weeks, improving the Blazers to 10-6-2 overall. UCF dropped to 8-7-3 with the loss.

With the victory, UAB advances to the C-USA Semifinals to take on No. 2
Tulsa. The Blazers and Golden Hurricane will meet on Friday at 7:30
p.m. CT at Regions Park, following a matchup between No. 1 SMU and No. 5
Kentucky at 5 p.m. CT.

"We had a few days off where we could really work on how we wanted to play against UCF, so playing them a week and a half ago and then having time to prepare really helped us," head coach Mike Getman said.

The Blazers notched the first goal of the contest in the 19th minute of action in the opening half. Karl Chester crossed a pass in from outside the penalty box, right to the feet of Wickham. The British Columbia native redirected the pass by the UCF goaltender, to give the Blazers the early lead.

Wickham was far from done, as he buried his second goal of the night, and fifth of the season, in the 42nd minute. Alex Clay dribbled through three UCF defenders, before dishing off a pass to Wickham, who gave the Blazers the 2-0 lead.

UAB looked to own a 2-0 lead entering intermission, but the Knights' Steven Lamberta corralled a ball from a scramble just outside the penalty box and rifled a shot in with just five seconds remaining in the half.

"(UCF) is a very good team and scored a nice goal and put themselves back in the game right before the half," Getman said. "But, we came back out and did what we wanted to do (in the second half), got the third goal and really finished the game off and I was really proud of our guys."

Following intermission, the Blazers kept the pressure on as Diego Navarrete intercepted a UCF pass, dribbled in and found the back of the net for the first time this season. The goal extended the Blazers' lead, 3-1 and would round out the scoring on the night.